Stages of SEO

SEO (search-engine optimization) is the practice of improving a website’s visibility in the organic section of search engine results pages, for the target search terms that are most relevant for each specific client. Every business is different, however most of them follow a similar process through the 5 stages of SEO. These stages continue to be revisited throughout the life cycle of the SEO campaign.

SEO Discovery

This is the first step in any given SEO campaign, and the point at which the primary website goals are identified. We begin this step with a preliminary SEO audit and exploratory call to discuss the client’s business and gain an understanding of the driving forces that will mean success for each specific client. This information will be used to help determine KPI’s that will be measured throughout the campaign to quantify progress, adjust strategy, and calculate ROI. It is also important that website analytics, search console, and SEO platforms are configured to begin capturing the data required for the SEO research stage.

SEO Research

In this stage of SEO we begin conducting comprehensive keyword research to identify the unique search terms that are most relevant for each client. This involves organizing and analyzing keyword data from a variety of sources, and creating a comprehensive strategy which defines where and how keywords will be used to optimize and populate new content across the site. We conduct in-depth analysis of each clients’ current back link profile, as well as leading competitors in the space. We run a complete technical crawl and initiate a more in-depth site audit to identify high-priority on-page and technical errors that need to be addressed. Lastly we conduct a complete website analytics analysis to gain a strong understanding of a site’s historical data trends and incorporate any important findings into our overall strategy.

On-Page SEO

In the on-page SEO stage we work closely with the client to begin creating and optimizing content that needs to be applied to the site. We create and begin to apply updated meta-data and finalized pages to the site, and begin building out the optimized site structure recommended after completing SEO research. At this same stage we also begin addressing important technical errors and toxic link issues if they have been identified during our research stage. The goal is to optimize, create, and apply a majority or large portion of the content from our campaign plan before moving on to our off-page SEO strategy.

Off-Page SEO

This stage of SEO represents the point at which we begin to address off-site influences such as backlinks, social-media, and even additional server-side issues that can cause problems with the search engines. The most important part of off-page SEO is crafting a unique link-building campaign that is designed to make the most out of each client’s existing assets and relationships. In today’s SEO landscape, content creation is critical to a sustainable off-page SEO strategy and offers clients a legitimate way to earn high-value links. We leverage a host of paid SEO software platforms to identify large data sets of potentially valuable backlinks, asses them for relevancy and SEO metrics, and organize and manage an outreach campaign to connect with decision-makers and ultimately establish targeted back links.

Website Analytics & SEO Strategy

This stage is in many ways the most critical to the long-term success of any given SEO campaign. Conducting regular website analytics analysis is essential to understanding the activity that is taking place on the site, and even more important for making informed decisions regarding the ongoing SEO strategy. Analytics data will tell where our traffic is coming from, what is happening when visitors arrive at the site, and which pages and content are helping us achieve our specific goals. Without regular analytics analysis there is little feedback to determine success, and next steps from any given point in the campaign can be daunting. Running a site without conducting regular analytics analysis is like driving with a blind fold on, receiving no feedback on what’s going right or wrong.

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